The politics of opera : a history from Monteverdi to Mozart / Mitchell Cohen.

Author/creator Cohen, Mitchell, 1952- author.
Format Electronic
PublicationPrinceton : Princeton University Press, [2017]
Copyright Date©2017
Description1 online resource
Supplemental ContentProQuest Ebook Central
Subjects
Opera--Political aspects. --History.

Contents Cover; Title; Copyright; Dedication; CONTENTS; List of Illustrations; Prologue: Mixtures, Boundaries, Parallels; Acknowledgments; PART 1: METAMORPHOSES, ANCIENT TO MODERN; CHAPTER 1 Who Rules? ; CHAPTER 2 Reigning Voices ; Intermedio (I); CHAPTER 3 Laws and Laurels ; PART 2: MANTUA TO VENICE.
Contents CHAPTER 4 Orpheus's Ways Intermedio (II); CHAPTER 5 A Prince Decides on Naxos ; Intermedio (III); CHAPTER 6 The Political Scenario of Monteverdi's Venice.
Contents CHAPTER 7 Revealing Ulysses Intermedio (IV); CHAPTER 8 Spectacles ; PART 3: UNDER FRENCH SUNS; CHAPTER 9 Agitations and Absolutes.
Contents CHAPTER 10 In the Winds: The Decades of Pernucio and Telemachus Un court intermède; CHAPTER 11 Vertical, Horizontal ; CHAPTER 12 Nature and Its Discontents.
Contents PART 4: ANCIENTS IN MODERNITYCHAPTER 13 From Elysium to Utica ; Zwischenspiel (I); CHAPTER 14 From Crete to Rome ; PART 5: ". . . AND ALTHOUGH I AM NO COUNT . . ."; CHAPTER 15 Masters and Servants ; Zwischenspiel (II).
Summary "The Politics of Opera" takes readers on a fascinating journey into the entwined development of opera and politics, from the Renaissance through the turn of the nineteenth century. What political backdrops have shaped opera? How has opera conveyed the political ideas of its times? Delving into European history and thought and an array of music by such greats as Lully, Rameau, and Mozart, Mitchell Cohen reveals how politics--through story lines, symbols, harmonies, and musical motifs--has played an operatic role both robust and sotto voce. Cohen begins with opera's emergence under Medici absolutism in Florence during the late Renaissance--where debates by humanists, including Galileo's father, led to the first operas in the late sixteenth century. Taking readers to Mantua and Venice, where composer Claudio Monteverdi flourished, Cohen examines how early operatic works like Orfeo used mythology to reflect on governance and policy issues of the day, such as state jurisdictions and immigration. Cohen explores France in the ages of Louis XIV and the Enlightenment and Vienna before and during the French Revolution, where the deceptive lightness of Mozart's masterpieces touched on the havoc of misrule and hidden abuses of power. Cohen also looks at smaller works, including a one-act opera written and composed by philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references and index.
LanguageIn English.
Source of descriptionOnline resource; title from PDF title page (EBSCO, viewed July 27, 2017).
Genre/formElectronic books.
Genre/formHistory.
LCCN 2017005887
ISBN9781400884735 (electronic bk.)
ISBN140088473X (electronic bk.)
Standard identifier# 10.1515/9781400884735
Stock number22573/ctvc5zwv7 JSTOR

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